Arriving and Hoping
by Arwen Jade Kenobi
Summary: “Well...you know me,” he shrugged sheepishly. “Supposed to show up in Norway, I show up in London.” Ten/Rose Reunionfic Spoilers for Doomsday


When the Time Vortex vanished the Doctor was smiling brightly.

Normally this wasn't something to hope for, but for the past year he'd hoped for it, oh how he'd hoped for it. Martha must have thought him completely and totally mad on some occasions when he'd whooped during an uncontrolled plummet to…wherever and had opened the doors to disappointment. It was stupid to hope for this every time the TARDIS did something unexpected. It was impossible but he did love impossible so very much. He loved impossible the same way he loved hope, no matter how much it hurt.

After working frantically over the controls, while praying to every deity in the universe that he was where he'd hoped, the doors had opened to reveal London. He'd closed his eyes and said another little prayer as he turned his head to the skies. When he saw zeppelins flying there he really had cheered wildly. Part of him reminded him that he was in the middle of a park with every living creature from the old man feeding pigeons to the squirrel in the trees was gawking at him. That part of him was very, very small, however, and he continued to crow and cheer and applaud his brilliance anyway. He was in mid victory dance when he caught the familiar form of Mickey Smith rushing up to him. Brilliant timing, absolutely brilliant! The Doctor's grin impossibly widened and Mickey was doing his best to match it as came up with his hand extended. The Doctor didn't even give Mickey the benefit of a disgruntled expression as he disregarded the hand and pulled the other man into a hug.

"I thought I must be dreaming when I heard that!" Mickey laughed as he stepped back from the Doctor and jerked his head at the TARDIS.

"Oh no! You could never dream that delightful sound!' The Doctor answered cheerfully as he took a moment to regard Mickey. He hadn't changed that much, much to the Doctor's delight. A bit closer inspection, however, told him differently. Mickey looked very much the same, aside from a small scar on his cheek that had to have been the result of a Boldari blade, but his eyes told another story. The rise in self-confidence was nothing new, but the assertiveness was. He was looking at a leader, a protector, a solider. It was as welcoming as it was disconcerting. This was not the work of a short period of time. How long had it been?

"Four years," Mickey answered as if the Doctor had asked the question aloud. "I take it's been less for you?"

"One year," the Doctor replied quietly before scrunching up his face in bafflement. "Four years for you? Really?"

"Yep."

"You sure you're not joshing me?"

Mickey said nothing but did glare sharply at the Doctor. No nonsense, he realized. Not anymore. The joke was not appreciated, probably never had been in the first place.

"Right," the Doctor said tightly with an equally tight nod. "Four years then." The full weight of the time past suddenly struck him like lightening. Four years. _Four Years. _He couldn't imagine four years. One year had been terrible enough.

Again Mickey acted as if he had a channel into the Doctor's thoughts. He shrugged indifference and shoved his hands into his pockets. The Doctor noted that it was January and quite cold…and he'd left his overcoat in the TARDIS. "It's a long time," the human was saying in an annoyingly casual tone. As if the Doctor was only three minutes late for a coffee date instead of four years late for an event which should never have needed to happen. "You could have done a lot worse," Mickey added pointedly.

He had to acknowledge that if only for a moment. He couldn't stand the idea of arriving here decades into this universe's future. He didn't want to know what the sight of Rose as an old woman would do to him. Speaking of Rose…

"She's not here." Had Mickey somehow picked up telepathic powers over the past four years? This was starting to get a little bit disconcerting. The Doctor blinked and Mickey elaborated. "She's in Norway."

The Doctor blinked. "Why in heaven's name would she be in Norway? Norway must be freezing this time of year!"

"Torchwood detected some activity up at Dårlig Ulv Stranden and Pete sent Rose to check it out." Mickey placed so much emphasis on the name of the place that the Doctor had images of the letters cracking to pieces under it.

_It's Norwegian for 'bad'…Bad Wolf Bay…_

_Bad Wolf_, The Doctor thought with a smile. _That would explain a bit._ "Has she been up there since…we...last time?" The question left him before he could stop it.

Mickey fixed the Doctor yet another pointed glare. "If situations were reversed would you ever want to see that beach again?"

The Doctor had to agree with that. It also made the most sense given the situation. Rose Tyler returns to Dårlig Ulv Stranden for the first time in four years. Not by her own will, mind you, she is i _sent /i _there. She must have connected the dots. _Had _to have connected the dots. She'd rushed off to Norway and probably stood, or could still be standing, in the bloody cold for hours waiting and listening and hoping.

Of course he would show up in the wrong place. He'd started to move toward the TARDIS before the thought had really finished but Mickey grabbed his arm

"What are you doing?"

The Doctor jerked his head toward the TARDIS. "Going to Norway, care to come along?"

Mickey's mouth was open but his mobile rang before he could actually say anything. He pulled it out of his coat pocket and glanced at the caller ID. "It's Rose. Shut up and come with me," he ordered curtly as he answered the phone and headed toward a nearby black car.

The Doctor took a moment to grab his overcoat out of the TARDIS and shrugged it on before he tailed after Mickey. He was so engrossed with the idea that _Rose Tyler _was on the other end of that phone extension that he didn't even berate Mickey for driving and chatting on the phone simultaneously. He settled into the passenger seat and strained to hear her end of the conversation. Sadly he couldn't even make out any words let alone whether it was her voice or not.

Then something Mickey said caught his attention. "What did the doctors tell you, Rose?"

_Doctors_

"No, I want to hear you say it." Mickey was saying. The hand that was on the steering wheel gripped tighter. "Right," he said sternly. "Now what does wandering around Norway in January for a week count as?" He rolled his eyes. "I'll see you in an hour then." He ended the call.

"What's wrong with Rose?" The question came out more urgently than he'd wanted it to, and perhaps a bit sharper too. Mickey jumped at the words and dropped the phone onto the floor. He didn't answer the Doctor's question right away as he was too busy mumbling under his breath about Rose's stupidity.

"Rose caught pneumonia a few weeks ago," Mickey answered after they'd stopped at a red light. "She was stranded in the Himalayas for a bit, and left with a lovely case of pneumonia." The light turned green and the Doctor was shoved backward a bit as Mickey gave a bit too much gas. "She only got completely over it last week and now she's been tramping around bloody Norway for a week!" he grumbled.

Perhaps this wasn't a new Mickey, the Doctor mused, merely an amplified version. All these traits were in him before, but it had taken certain catalysts to make them more obvious. The Doctor didn't know what caused all of them but this fierce protection of Rose…that the Doctor reckoned he knew quite well what that catalyst was.

The Doctor knew it wasn't right to feel proud of him; it was like taking credit for something that he had no real part of but he felt proud of him nonetheless. Maybe he'd tell Mickey so before he left again. He paused at that thought. He knew well the dangers of hope but he loved the feeling nonetheless. This was why he let himself hope that he would not leave this universe alone.

- - -

Mickey had not told Rose about the Doctor's arrival, explaining that he wanted to surprise her. "I want to see that look on her face before she leaves again."

"She may not," the Doctor countered, trying to be realistic. "She may stay with you and her family." After all, he thought, Rose had her father in this universe. She had her mother, her job. She'd built a life here.

Mickey snorted. "She'll go with you, you idiot!" He cuffed him in the shoulder. "Can't believe you'd even entertain any other possibility!"

The Doctor smiled slightly. He had to agree. He couldn't picture Rose settling down on one place. The thrill of being on a new world never got old for her, and he never got tired of her excitement. It was one of the many things he'd missed about her. Four years stuck on one planet must have been quite a test.

"Her zeppelin's arrived!" Mickey cried, pulling the Doctor out of his reverie. A newspaper was shoved into his hand as he, himself, was shoved to the back of the docking port. Standing behind a pillar seemed a bit cliché but it worked its magic. He watched as Mickey made his way to one of the escalators at the front of the room.

There she was.

She was dressed professionally in a pant suit with a parka pulled around her. It appeared to be the same one she'd been wearing on her last visit to Norway. Her eyes were sharp and hard, but it was the crystallization of maturity in her eyes along with the echoes of all she'd seen and been through. Her once long blonde hair was cropped short, hanging just below her chin and it looked a touch more natural than he remembered it. He could sense a familiar devil-may-care attitude about her, but she looked tired and defeated right now. Still beautiful, though. Still his Rose. He kept his eyes on her as she made her way toward Mickey, who hugged her tight as soon as she was in reach.

Rose, however, was pulling away. She didn't want the comfort being offered which the Doctor found odd. Rose simply loved hugs. Hugs for comfort, hugs for happiness, hugs for no reason, it didn't matter to her. She gave and received whenever fancy struck her. He looked closely at her and took in the look of defeat in her eyes as she pulled away. No…she didn't want this hug because she didn't deserve it in her mind. She felt like her heart had been ripped out and it was her own fault for it.

"Oh, Rose," the Doctor breathed. He blinked the moisture out of his eyes tensed at the tug at his hearts when Rose began to back away and opened her mouth only to lose any words to an impressive coughing fit.

Mickey rolled his eyes as he waited for her to finish. "Okay," he sighed in the resigned tone of someone who was far too used to situations like this. "How long were you tramping around that bay?"

"No comment," she wheezed as she let Mickey steer her to a seat within ear shot of where the Doctor was hidden. His eyes were riveted on Rose. It had only been two words. Two words not even directed at him but it was her voice. He was hearing her voice for real and not in his head. It was a simply glorious sound.

"Bad Wolf Bay, Mickey. _Bad Wolf Bay_!" she was saying now, all energized with frustration and rambling on at the speed of light. "It all made so much sense!" she ran her hands through her hair and then let them fall heavily to her lap. "I checked every inch of that bay for a tear, a waver, a bloody hole in the universe, anything!" Her voice dropped down to a whisper. "But there was nothing."

"He did say it was impossible," Mickey said in a perfectly acted defeated tone. The Doctor snorted. Impossible was just a word and they were the stuff of legends.

Rose laughed but it was a strange sound. It was full of fondness and memory but with a tinge of bitterness. "I didn't want to go back there, Mickey," she shuddered. "I didn't want to see that beach ever again."

"Why did you go then? Pete would have understood and sent someone else."

"Because it just all made _sense_!" Rose roared. She shot to her feet and started pacing, hands waving in the air in renewed, and redirected, frustration. "I hadn't been there in four years, Bad Wolf Bay, strange activity…it all just…I'd just hoped." She stopped to wipe her eyes but her voice did not waver. "Stupid thing to do," she chastised herself, "hope I mean..."

The Doctor decided at that moment that Mickey's plan could go rot. He tossed the newspaper aside and walked toward the two friends. "I don't know about that," he said with a slight quiver in his voice. "I'm rather fond of hope."

Rose froze and the Doctor was sure that she'd stopped breathing for a moment. He was dimly aware of people walking by, slowing emptying out the platform as the zeppelin departed, but there was no one else in the world but Rose and him at that moment. After what seemed like an eternity she blinked, rose shakily to her feet, and ran toward him. The hug was fierce and protective. Two bodies trying to fuse together, become one so they could never be separated again. Rose's legs were wrapped around him, her face was buried in the Doctor's neck and she was whispering "I knew, I knew it!" ferociously. The Doctor's face buried his face in crook of her neck as he tried to reign in his emotions to a more controllable level.

Finally he set Rose back on the ground and pulled her off. Each took a step back, still holding onto the other's arms as they regarded the other. Rose's mouth was opening and closing as she tried to think of something to say. The Doctor, however, knew exactly what he needed to say. He squeezed her forearms until her eyes locked with his. "I love you."

Rose's eyes welled up as she tried to choke out an answer, but the only sound leaving her lips was a gasping, croaking noise. The sound broke the Doctor's hearts and he pulled her into his arms again. This time the embrace was gentle and comforting. He held her close as she sobbed and grabbed onto him as tightly as she'd tried to grasp that lever eternities ago. "I know," he soothed her. "I've always known, Rose."

She stepped back after a moment, eyes still shining. She looked at him incredulously before she smirked, wiped her eyes and said: "Took you bloody long enough!"

The Doctor was quite offended. "Oi!" he shouted in indignation. "The impossible may be fun but it's never easy!"

"You got here by accident didn't you?" she questioned with a knowing look.

"Yep," he announced brightly. His face fell into a pensive. "Well, no…I guess it really wasn't an accident was it?" He pointed at the discarded paper, the headline proclaiming something about the record breaking single "Bad Wolf".

Rose regarded the paper and nodded. "Na, probably wasn't," she agreed. "Though weren't you supposed to land in Norway? I spent a bloody week up there in a tent!"

"Oi!" Mickey interjected from his place on the bench. "You told you me you were staying a hotel."

"Why didn't I give you a hotel number then?"

Mickey groaned and rested a fist on his forehead. The Doctor and Rose shared a laugh before the former took a much keener interest in his trainers. "Well...you know me," he shrugged sheepishly. "Supposed to show up in Norway, I show up in London."

"Should have known," Rose nodded and offered him her hand. "Come on then! Got to take care of a few things before we leave."

_We _leave. The pronoun had a positively ethereal sound to him. Any fool would just take it as given but the Doctor had to be sure. "You really want to…"

The Doctor expected her to stare at him as if he'd grown horns and go on about how stupid he was for thinking he was going to just leave her there. Instead she stared at him levelly and calmly asked him a question. "What did I tell you at Canary Wharf?"

The Doctor smiled brightly and Rose matched it watt for watt. He had his answer. She waved her hand at him again, very much in the same way he had after that Christmas adventure so long ago. He grabbed that hand was delighted that they still fit together perfectly. Some things would never change and he hoped this was one of them.


End file.
